ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to show a paradigmatic crisis in academic bioethics. Since an important part of bioethicists began to relativize the ethical prohibition of killing an innocent human being, one way or another they began to ally with the death industry: the business of abortion, and then that of euthanasia. The thesis of this paper is that by crossing that Rubicon bioethics has been corrupted and has lost its connection to the ethical, political and legal discourse. One can only hope that it will revive from its ashes if it retakes the«taboo» of the sacredness of human life, something for which medical ethics could provide invaluable help, because it still keeps the notion that «a doctor should not kill», although in an excessively «discreet» and somehow «ashamed» way. However, conscientious doctors know more about ethics than most bioethicists.